Train-control system for toy railways



W. C. ROE.

TRAIN CONTROL SYSTEM FOR TOY RAILWAYS. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 27, 1919.

1,327,21 5,, Patented Jan. 6, 1920.

'rnn smarts Parana iarn W ILLIAIVI C. ROE; F PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR-O'F ONE-HALF T07 WILLIATM C. HANDLAN, 0F WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA.

TRAIN-CONTROL SYSTEM FOR TOY RAILWAYS.

To all whom'it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM C. Ron, a citizen of the United States of America, and resident of Pittsburgh, county of Allegheny, and Stateof Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Train-Control Systems for Toy Railways, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates broadly to a sys- Y tem of electrical train control for toy railtrain or locomotive ma ways, and it has for its primary object to provide, in association with a toy rallway and a train or locomotive designed for travel thereon, a construction and arrange ment of electrical equipment whereby said whereby the direction 0 travel thereof may be controlled from a point remote with respect thereto. A further object is to provide a system of train control in which the reversal of thedirectio'n of travel is eifectedautomatically by the mere act of opening the electrical circuit for a brief interval of time that is, by opening a switch in said circuit and then restoring the circuit by closing said switch. 7 p

- Another object is to provide a system of the character mentioned which is? operative either on alternating or direct current and which may be arranged to operate either with a two-wire or three-wire control.

. A still further object is to improve the train control system disclosed in my United States Letters Patent No. 1,259,135, granted March 12, 1918.

In describing the invention in detail, reference is herein had to the accompanyingdrawings, in which. 1

Figure l is a sectional elevation of the train-carried driving motor;

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic .view of the, system; and

Fig. 3 is a similar view-of a modified ar- 7 mg of the electric circuit, effected through the closing of a switch 33 located at any conragement.

Referring first to 1 and2 of said.v

armature is a field magnet 45 the field 4;?

Specification of, Letters Patent.

be propelled and of which is provided with differential windto an axle 15 of the locomotive or train and through said axle and a wheel 23 to a track rail 16 to which a conductor 17 leadsopposite track rail 19 from the opposite Patented Jan. e, ieao.

Application filed. September 27, 1919. Serial No. 326,746. 1

pole of said battery or otherv current source is a conductor 20.

Said track rail 19, which is suitably insulated from the rail 16, as by insulation 21 interposed between it and the underlying crossties 22, serves to conduct current to the wheel 2 1 opposite said Wheel 23, whence'the current is suitably conducted, as by a conductor 25, to a laterally shiftable member 26, said wheel being insulated from its axl 15 as indicated at 27, Fig. 2.

The shiftable member 26 is disposed between the contacts 11 and 12 .and is adapted,

to be shifted into engagement with either of the latter, as will presently be explained, for completing the electric circuit through one or the other of the windings of-the differentially-wound magnet field 1 The .free end of said shiftable member is of yoke form and hasthe opposite yoke members received in an annular groove or channel 28 p'rovided'therefor in the hub 29 of a fly wheel 30 which is 'rotatably mounted upon an end of the drive shaft 1 of the' I mote-12' Formed in said hub is a sp ral slot 31 of suitable length, and extending outward through this slot is a stud or pin 32 carried by said drive shaft. J I

In practice, the motor is driven by clos- 'venient' point in said circuit, in a direction controlled by thedirection taken by the cur-.

rent in passing through the magnet field 4:",

"said direction obviously depending upon 32 fixed on said shaft being disposed at the inner end of the spiral slot 31 in the hub 29 of said fly wheel. So disposed, said stud maintains the fly wheel in the outwardly I thrust position shown in full lines in Fig. 1,

maintaining the member 26 iii engagement withcontact 11. When the motor is stopped by opening the switch 33, the momentum of the flywheel acts to cause the latter to overrun the speed of the shaft 1 and to rotate on vthe latter until the stud 30 seats at the opposite, or outer, end of the slot 31. As is obvious, during the overrunning movement the fly wheel is shifted inward along said shaft due to the spiral disposition of said slot, and this results in the member 26 being moved inwardly to the dotted line position indicated in-Fig. 1 in which it engrges the inner contact 12, It follows, therefore, that unon a restoration of the circuit, effected through reclosing of the switch 33, the motor will be actuated to rotate its shaft 1 in a reverse direction.

Manifest'ly, the motor may be again' stopped and actuated in a forward direction by the niere act of opening and again closing the switch 33, the member 26' being shift- -ed outward into engagement with contact 11 during any interval of opening of the circuit, no matter how brief, by the overrunnin'g movement of the fly wheel'which occurs I during such interval.

Referring to the modification illustrated in 'Fig. 3', a manually shiftable switch 33 associated with a three-wire control is substituted forthe automatic shifting mechanism and two-wire control hereinbeforedescribed, said switch being shiftable into engagement with either of two contacts 34 or 35 according as it is desiredto drive the train in av forward or reverse direction.

'. Said contacts 34: and 35 are respectively connected by conductors 36 and 37 to the opposite track rails 16 and 19" one of which is suitably insulated. A third rail 38, also insulated, is connected by a conductor 39 to the pole of the battery 18 opposite that which is connected by conductor 20 to the switch 33*. A brush 40 carried by the train and connected by .a conductor'tl to acommutator brush 13 is designed to make wiping contact with said third rail. The differential windings 5 and 6 of themagnet are respectively connected by conductors 3? and 1O to wheels of the locomotive which travel upon saidthrough magnet winding 5 said circuit consisting of battery 18?, conductor 20 switch 33, conductor 36, track rail 16*, wheel 23, axle 15 conductor 9 magnet winding- 5 conductor 8, brush 7*, commutator 3 and armature 2*, brush 13*, conductor 41, brush 40, third rail 38, and conductor 39. On the other hand, when the switch engages contact 35, a circuit is established through magnet winding 6 the same consistingof battery 18 conductorQO, switch 33 conductor 37, track rail 19, wheel 2 1 conductor 10, magnet winding 6, conductor 8,'bru'sh 7 commutator 3 and armature 2, brush 13 conductor 41, brush 40', third rail 38, and conductor 39. i

What is claimed is 1. The combination with a vehicle, of an electric motor carried by said vehicle for driving the latter and embodying a field magnet with differential windings, a multipolar armature and a commutator, a stae tionaryjsourceof electric current, conducting means leading from said current source to said motor, and shiftable means whereby the current is directed through either one of said magnet windings for controlling the direction of travel of the'vehicle.

2. The combination with a vehicle, of an electric motor carried by said vehicle for driving the latter and embodying a field magnet with differential windings, a multipolar armature and a commutator, a source of electrlc current located at a point remote from said vehicle, means for conducting an electric current from said current source to said motor, and shiftable means whereby the current through one of said magnet windings may be cut ofl and directed through the other of said windings for reversingthe travel. a

.3. The combination with a vehicle, of an electric motor carried by said vehicle for driving the latter and embodying a field magnet with differential windings, a multipolar armature and a commutator, a source of electric current located at a point remote from said vehicle, means for conducting an electric current from said current source to said motor, and shiftable means automatically actuated upon the breaking of the cir-- cuit through one of the magnet windings to move to a position wherein the circuit, when reclosed, includes the other of said windngs.

' 4. The combination with a vehicle, of an electric motor carried by said vehicle for driving the latter and embodying a field magnet with differential windings, a multipolar armature and a commutator, a source i of electric current located at a point remote from said vehicle, means for conducting an electrlc current from said current source to said motor, a pair of separated contacts ascontacts and adapted to direct current through one or the other of said windings according as it engages One or the other of said contacts, and means actuated upon the opening of the electric circuit through one of said windings, to automatically shift said member from engagement with one of said contacts into engagement with the other whereby the circuit, when reestablished, in cludes the other of said-windings.

5. The combination with a vehicle of an electric motor carried by said. vehicle for driving the latter and embodying a magnet having a differentially wound field, a multipolar armature and a commutator, said ar mature having a' stud fixed upon its shaft adjacent to one end of the latter, a source of electric current,'means for conducting current from said currentsource to said motor, a fly wheel having a hub provided with a spiral slot therein, said wheel being rotatable upon said'armature shaft and having said stud received in the slot of its hub, a

pair of separated contacts associated with the, diflerential windings of the magnet, a

7 member disposed for movement between said contacts, said member having a part suitably connected to the fly wheel whereby it is actuated 'by sliding movement of said fly wheel along said armature shaft to move from engagement with one of said contacts into ,engagement with the other, said stud and said slot cooperating to cause shifting movement of the fly wheel, when the motor is stopped, through overrunning speed of the flywheel clue to momentum of the latter.

6. The combination with a multipolar m0- tor having a differentially wound magnetfield, and an electric circuit in which said motor is located, of means automatically actuated by opening and reclosing of said circuit whereby the current is shifted from one of the magnet windings to the other for re-- I versing the motor; said means comprising a fly wheel mounted forrotationon the ar mature shaft of the motor and adapted to be shifted laterally along said shaft, said wheel having a hub with a spirally disposed slot therein, and a radial stud carried by said shaft disposed in said slot and adapted to actuate said fly wheel to shift along said shaft when the speed of the latter drops belowthat of said fly wheel; separated contacts connected to said magnet windings,

and a switch member assooiated'with said fly wheel hub and adapted to be carried by shifting movement of thelatter from engagement with oneof said contacts into engagement wlth the other.

WILLIAM C. ROE.

Witnesses:

E. DUNLAP, J. D. GRow. 

